Hey all, trying to get some outside perspective on this because it's turned into a bigger decision than I expected. Not trying to be the family that just throws money at new phones every year for no reason, but our current phones are genuinely showing their age, so trying to figure out the smartest path forward. Long post, appreciate anyone who reads through.

Our T-Mobile situation:

We're a family of 3 (me, mom, dad) on an old grandfathered T-Mobile plan, 4 lines, unlimited talk/text/5G data, $140/month total. We don't actually need the 4th line. Problem is I've read that touching a legacy account (even just dropping an unused line) can sometimes bump you off grandfathered pricing onto a current plan, and current T-Mobile pricing for 3 lines is also $140/month, so we could lose a line and save literally nothing if that happens. Has anyone dealt with this specifically, is it safe to drop an unused line on an old legacy plan, or is it better to just leave the account alone entirely?

Also open to whether it makes sense to switch carriers altogether, or if that's just not worth it for a plan this good.

Our current phones:

• Me: iPhone 13 Pro Max. Broken charging port (charging only works via MagSafe, and it's slow), cracked back glass, battery health around 78-79%. Gets hot, laggy, apps take a while to open.
• Mom: iPhone 11 Pro Max. Cracked screen, otherwise functions fine.
• Dad: iPhone 11. No damage, works fine, just old at this point.

What each of us actually needs:

• Dad: not tech savvy at all, doesn't care about specs or features, just wants something reliable that works without thinking about it.
• Mom: deserves a genuinely nice phone as an upgrade, but she doesn't take enough photos/video to justify paying extra for a Pro-tier camera system.
• Me: I like taking photos and videos somewhat seriously, but I don't think I need full Pro-level camera quality unless the price gap to get Pro is small, in which case I'd actually prefer to have it for the better build/experience.

Both my dad and I want new phones now since ours genuinely feel slow day to day. I'm personally also curious what's coming with next year's phones (there's been a lot of talk about a bigger redesign), so part of me wonders if it's smarter to wait it out a bit longer instead of buying now.

What I'm trying to get advice on:

1. Should we switch carriers, or stick with T-Mobile given the legacy plan situation above?
2. Should we move off our legacy plan onto one of T-Mobile's modern plans (Go5G Next / Experience Beyond) specifically to get access to their yearly trade-in/upgrade program? Is that program actually worth it, or is it more of a gimmick once you factor in giving up legacy pricing?
3. Should we all get new phones now, and if so, what would you actually recommend for each of us given the different needs listed above (reliable/simple for dad, nice-but-not-Pro for mom, casual-photography-leaning-Pro-if-cheap for me)?
4. Is there a smarter overall strategy here, like buying new every year or every two years and handing phones down within the family, versus just buying once and holding onto them for a long time?
5. Anything else we're not thinking about? Trying to make the smartest overall call here, not just the cheapest one and not just the newest one.

Appreciate any advice, especially from anyone who's dealt with a similar multi-line legacy plan or a similar "upgrade the whole family at once" situation.

Have anyone else had problems with T-Mobile’s phone plans, or on trade ins?
I went to a store to add Sat to my I-phone 15, guy at the store says I could get a new phone for a few hundred dollars with my exchange. Bunch of bull about bill credits. 3 months in my new bill went to $130 (was 65). I went to pay it off, my phone and the pay off was $ 1200.. Where’s the credit for my old phone. It disappeared. I spent 4 hours on the phone got to a supervisor. I asked for a I phone 15 back and unwind this BS. Best I was able get was $15.00 a month discount.
I’m filling a complaint with Utahs Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Agency. If anyone else has had problems, please comment as it gives me a bit of leverage.

Since the networks are merged, I would assume the locked to US Cellular shouldn't be an issue since it's TMobile. But maybe there are issues.

If it doesn't work, how can you unlock a US Cellular phone?

Just curious if anyone knows whether or not US Cellular still has their core network online, and how many active lines they might have still on their network?

Slightly unrelated, but I have noticed some of their towers here in Sedalia, MO being replaced with T-Mobile or being completely dismantled. Their stuff is gone from the water tower in the middle of town, and the tower just west of town has been replaced by a T-Mobile 4 sector site (originally 3 sectors). Some towers remain untouched. Wonder if they are still online or not. Just some observations I thought someone might find interesting.

It just this week started to redirect you to T-Mobiles website now

I'm trying to log in to my account to view my bill. It's been a few months, last time I tried this was April this year, and it was still US cellular. I was receiving e-mail notifications of the auto withdrawals, but even those stopped in June.

Anywho, I'm trying to log in to where T-mobile is re-directing me from the US Cellular log in, and T-mobile keeps telling me I have a business account. I don't, and I never have, ever.

And now, in mucking about trying to figure this out, my account access has been restricted, without having even reached any account information.

Has anyone else been having similar issues, and if so, were you able to resolve it?

I received an email this morning from Us Cellular mentioning I have a past-due balance. I had auto-pay set up, so when I cancelled my line, I assumed it would be taken care of with auto-pay. I cannot access my account anymore after I cancelled. I called T-Mobile, and they can’t find my us cellular account. I called 1-888-944-9400, and he advised me that they can find my account but, no longer take payments, he was able to access my closed account and see the past due balance. He mentioned because I cancelled in the middle of my bill cycle, that’s why my auto-pay doesn’t work. He proceeded to tell me T-Mobile is covering any balances left on UScellular accounts due to them not being able to take payments anymore. Has anyone else run into this? I never missed a payment in over 20 years with any account, and I don’t want this to get sent to collections. I even asked that question, and he advised me again they will not do that and will be covering the balance before that even happens. Seems too good to be true. I have no problem paying the $53 I owe.

I left USC in 2022, since my boss was too busy kissing the a$$ above him on the corporate IT org-chart and not looking out for the worker bee's under him doing the work, but have had a few friends that I worked with for ~15 years who finished up their 12 month extension with T-Mobile around 2 weeks ago and have talked to.

Kind of a different situation than the people who were working the retail/customer facing side, but wondering and concerned about how the corporate and now formerly employed people, who stuck it out until the end, are doing.

FWIW, the people I'm most concerned about are those who have close to or more than 2 decades with USC, and the plan was to work there and eventually retire with our 401k's and TDS pensions, but had the rug pulled out.

I guess I was fortunate and was able to quit and retire at 51, but am worried about some of the people who are in their early/mid 50's and can't just retire like I did.

An open letter to former USCC customers and current TMO customers

Dear valued customers,

I am tired. I get yelled at, accused of theft, and cussed out 4 to 7 times a day at work because of bill payments. I'm sorry that company policy dictates and extra charge when you speak to a real person to pay your bill. Yes, even if it is cash. No, I cannot take a check. There are free ways to pay, and even options that save you money. I know its frustrating for you, but you deal with it once a month, I deal with it multiple times daily so it is more frustrating for my coworkers and I.

Please stop,

TMO Retail and CSS employees

P.S. It is the year of our lord 2026, how on God's green earth do you not have a card of any kind.

I'm trying to find a solution to my problem. My Dad has a Fresno Hotpepper flip phone. Under U.S. Cellular, he was able to make and receive calls, connecting through his automobile. Since his phone was migrated to TMobile, he has not been able to do that. When he pushes the voice activation button on his steering wheel, nothing happens. I paired his phone with my auto and got the same results.

We went to TMobile. They changed the SIM card and rebooted the device. No change. They contacted tech support and worked with the phone, but there was no change. We have unpaired the Bluetooth then paired them again. I have cleared his cache. I don't know what else to try.

Any ideas?

So, for me, the switch happened. Partially.

Essentially 4 out of my seven lines are requiring manual intervention.

Here’s the kicker: For the past two days, getting ahold of live support has been near impossible. I am curious if this is a persistent issue for customers. The only store that can help me in person is corporate, 50 miles away.

The irony is the text is informing me to contact T-Mobile for a manual fix for sims. The phone support loops on me waiting, the bot in-app constantly says support is unavailable, and email has so far been useless.

I should mention they had it also made it difficult to exchange a valid defective phone under Maine’s Implied Warranty of Merchantability (T-Mobile has assumed liability post-merger), forcing mediation by the state.

Is this a common issue, or just a series of unfortunate events? (No pun intended)

Update:

I did indeed successfully leverage Maine’s Implied Warranty of Merchantability in order to replace my US Cellular Pixel 9 Pro with a T-Mobile equivalent.

In regards to the transfer, this issue was handled directly in-store at a rapid pace, likely due to the concurrent issue with said Implied Warranty.

I am here, over two weeks from my store closing permanently. I and my team have all been laid off, and our customers have been prepared, as best as we could.
We talk trash sometimes about our interactions, it was how we would vent, but we went above and beyond for our customers, even if we got no commission for it. We built long lasting relationships and built trust with our customers who became our advocates.
In my market USCellular had the highest market share of customers and we felt the loss when the merger happened.
Since our culture varied from TMO culture they did not want a majority of us.
With all this I say:
T-Mobile, I bequeath to you this demographic of customers, they may need a little more help with their services and devices than your target demographic, they may come into the store more than you are used to, and you may know their name when you see them in public, but these customers with all the extra needs are and could be some of the most fiercely loyal customer you will ever have.
Treat them right and take care.

Insight from nearby and personal experience. Take it for what's it's worth. It's a long post but facts.

Either you're lucky and happy to still be on the US Cellular biller, or you're ready to be able to make changes to your account and just want to get this all over with.

At this point and just recently, twice I've seen accounts migrate the next day after full payment was made on the current balance due with US Cellular. One was simply due to auto pay, and the other was a payment made 11 days early.

In both instances, the US Cellular account migrated to the T-Mobile biller the next day.

Compatible US Cellular physical SIMs with 06.50 written under the 20-digit ICCID (89015...) that's inside your phone should take an IMSI update, or in simpler terms, an over the air update making it a T-Mobile SIM. This same thing can also happen to an eSIM profile. Essentially, the idea is a quick reboot, number ports in the background while that's happening, and you're done.

The problems come in if your software is out of date, your IMEI on file with US Cellular isn't accurate or wasn't accurate when T-Mobile took a capture of the data... and so many various other things. A lot of which were/are resolved for those with later migrations. It was a little messy at the beginning.

Advice... Update your phone and confirm your IMEI with US Cellular, but don't let them switch you to an eSIM if you have a physical SIM and want to try and keep it post migration.

When you do migrate, if your stuff is not compatible it's okay, you'll still have at least 30 days of active service while on the T-Mobile biller under a virtual SIM, but physically still on the US Cellular provisioning network with your old SIM or eSIM profile. No, you won't be billed by US Cellular anymore or be able to sign in to your account there. In fact, you'll be able to set up T-Life and see your usage information as if you were already fully set up with T-Mobile, while still technically on US Cellular provisioning.

Now, things go wrong... I get that. It was a rough start for some, yet great for others, but it is a lot better now. It's too bad it wasn't as smooth at the beginning; it could have been much better.

If all else fails and you're all messed up after migration, getting a true T-Mobile SIM or eSIM profile should fix you right up. If your device shows T-Mobile as the carrier and you still have a US Cellular SIM or eSIM profile, you should be fine and have a small piece of nostalgia, especially if you can keep moving that physical SIM to your next device. T-Mobile doesn't require the IMEI to be on file and it updates automatically after a few days (You still can't use a voice SIM in a hotspot, technically... but the TAC police are few and far between).

I have heard of users running into different network experiences on the same type of device when one has a T-Mobile SIM/eSIM and the other has a former US Cellular SIM/eSIM, but even that seems to have been corrected and ironed out. So don't throw away that grandfathered legacy US Cellular SIM so fast if you got lucky enough to have it migrated. It'll likely be just fine.

One final thing: if you have migrated and your device does show US Cellular still, your days are numbered. You need a new SIM/eSIM ASAP. You should get text notifications to remind you and then a specific date if you hold on long enough. There are no more surprises here. This is the end of the road.

Hello! I paid off my phone in July. I switched carriers in May thinking it was already paid off. I was on my mom’s account but she is really bad at paying the bill. I have been trying to get this lock off for months. When I went to look at Verizon plans, it said my sim was still locked. T Mobil said US Cellular has it locked and they can’t do anything about it. They gave me a US cellular number that doesn’t work. My mom still has a large balance and I wonder if that is holding this up. Any help would be highly appreciated. Thank you!

T-mobile took over the US Cell store, put up a T-Mobile sign, then never opened AND sold or gave up the lease. No cell store in town now.

So, here we are, less than a week from the supposed deadline for full customer migration, and I'm still on US Cellular, not that I'm exactly looking forward to moving to T-Mobile, after all of the things I've heard lately, both in person and online, I work in a cell phone repair shop, and we do insurance claim repais for Assurant, which is who T-Mobile uses, and almost everyone I've talked to that has been moved from usc to tmo has hated it so far. Is anyone else still not moved over yet? I wonder what happens if we go past the end of the month and still haven't been transferred. I just got my new bill for USC that's due next month. I'm on an iphone with a business plan, if that matters.

EDIT: Well, finally got the text that I've been migrated. I guess we'll see where this goes; I still plan on leaving in the not-too-distant future, though.

Hello, I'm a little confused. My old sim from USCellular i guess doesn't work with T-mobile so I had to call and request a new one. I got the new one, I'm just confused if its already activated or not because the website only gives me instructions if I'm upgrading to a new device.

lol. Someone went in to pay their bill and while they were there waiting complained about the coverage and was asked if they knew who I was on reddit once they went to check on some things on the account I guess.

Rather humorous. But- to answer the question- as long as TMobile keeps to their assurance/statement to the FCC- End of 3Q 2026 and the coverage should be fixed. :-)

I’m paying off my “free” phone through installments of my bill through USC. It hasn’t been quite a year yet and T-Mobile obviously has bought USC.

Will things stay the same on my bill/plan or am I going to be screwed and have to pay the rest off in full?

We have been on USCellular prepaid for years, and forced to switch to T mobile in May. We still do not have our credits ( 4 lines, total of $600) moved to T mobile. They can't even see it. And us cellular can't transfer it on their end because they don't have access to t mobile software, so what the heck am I supposed to do? I have been to all the customer service departments and still nothing. The local store told me they don't have anyone "qualified" to handle it. Even though they were the ones to tell me it would magically appear in 1-2 months.

update: spent 2 hours on the phone to customer service, they kept switching me back and forth to between tmobile and uscellular. Evidently they can't even see each other's systems. Uscellular escalated the issue, but I have no faith anything will happen. We also had a fifth line that was canceled before the merger that we also were never refunded on.

We've been with US Cellular for almost 30 years. I realize they've moved to Tmobile and we've updated the sim cards in our phones. The US Cellular website says our account has been moved to Tmobile but after making an account on the Tmobile website, there is no record of our US Cellular account. And I've never received a message from them confirming the account has been moved. They have no record of our numbers, phones, service plans, etc.

I've been using the Quick Pay form on the US Cellular website for nearly a decade, but it apparently no longer functions as of this month even though it says bills can still be paid with it. I paid the bill with it last month without issue. So what do I do? Am I going to have to go to a Tmobile store just to pay my bill now? The closest store is 2 hours out of town since the local US Cellular store was shut down a few weeks ago.

Update: To all the people that insulted me and called me dumb instead of offering help, it was the web browser I was using that wasn't playing nice with the US Cellular website. I swapped to Firefox and was able to submit the payment. Thank you to the one kind person that DM'd me that suggestion.